The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1887-09-08
NINE YEARS In A DREAM.
Singular Effect Of Bullet Wound in the
Head-Lieut. Coffin and His Memory
Live Apart for Nearly Decade
Its Strange Return.

Its Strange Return.
Nodding gently to the Zephyrs that ruffie
up the surface of the Kennebec river, in
this city, there lies stanch-looking sloop,
with her prov pointing toward the old
town landing. At her helm, watching
the blue wreaths of smoke ascend heav-
onward from ii bliar-w ood pipe, sits IA man
past the summer If fe. He has Il half
! soldier, half Sailrr appearance, IL keen eye
and an Intelligent appearance. His hair
is long and hangs nearly to his shoulders,
curling at the ends. 1t is yellowish gray
in color and very thick. A mustache and
goatee give him the appearance of a vet
eran of Napoleon's Old Guard, while the
brass, eagle-emblazoned buttons on his
waistcoat and silver badge, inlaid with
various colored stones, inform one that
he was once soldier in Uncle Sans ar
my, and once listened to the ominous zip
of the mimic bullets as they chanted their
sanguinary songs on the field of carnage.
The name of this man is Lieut. J. n.
Coffin. He was born in Portsmouth, n.
H, in 1856. His life and adventures
| VI
breadth escapes would make scores of
juvenile Indian slayers and embryo Buff
falo Bills. When he became old enough
his mother sent him to school, and he
scarcely missed day during that period
of his life until he graduated at the Ports
mouth High School.
California had fascination for him,
| h1fh ho CT, lou
While in the Golden State war broke out
with Mexico. and he shouldered his mus
ket like many of his New England breth-
ren, to do battle for his country's cause.
He was at the storming of Chapultepec,
and entered the Mexican fortress and
made prisoner of the commander before
the colors were pulled down. For this
meritorious conduct he was
MADE A SERGEANT.
The hardy son of the Granite State fol-
lowed the eyer-varying fortunes of the
war, and at its close he, with company
| of twenty-five men, headed by his old
Captain in the Mexican war, John H.
| Jackson, who was Colonel in the war
of the rebellion, and who is now, or was
recently, employed in the Boston Custom
house, started from Panama in dugout
for the city of San Francisco.
| Lieut.. Coffin left the party in Mazatlan
and shipped before the mast on French
whaler and was wrecked in MaZatlan
harbor by tornado. Only ten of crew
of sixty-eight survived, Lieut.. Coffin be-
| ing one of the four that reached the shore
+
the British man-of-war Champion.
After spending many years in Califor-
MIA he returned to his native State, and
| when the war of the rebellion broke out
| he enlisted as Lieutenant in the Thir-
teenth New Hampshire regiment. While
| stationed near the Portsmouth (Va) navy
| yard stray shot from the enemy grazed
| the top of his head. This wound had a
singular effect upon his memory. For
nine years he lived as one in a dream,
and all the events of the war were almost
entirely forgotten.
He was sent to the hospital attached to
the Quartermaster's department in Alex
andria, and was afterward transferred to
Lincoln Hospital, in Washington, D. G..
His general health was good. and he had
the use of tools in the quartermaster's de-
partment, to which the hospital was at
tached
Having learned the carpenters trade in
Portsmouth, N. H, when a boy, the old
knack of handling the plane and chisel
soon returned to him. All that he did
was in sort of mechanical way. His
memory was so tickle that he was obliged
to make note of everything he wished
to remember. If he went down town for
pound of nails without memorandum
of what he was after he could never re-
member what errand he had started on.
1t 1870, when Capt. Hall obtained
commission for an Arctic expidition,
friend procured Lieut.. Coffin the office of
ships carpenter On board the Polaris,
thinking the
CHANGE OF CLIMATE
might be of ber eft him. Little he thought
of the consequences, and the peculiar
ties that were to arise.
The Polaris started on her ever-memor-
able cruise, and Lieut.. Coffin gave entire
satisfaction. He still adhered to his hab-
it of making notes, and fortunate he did,
for he would have had no history of his
life from the time he was struck by the
stray bullet until the return of his men,
Ory, nine years later.
1t may be remembered that the Polaris
that season penetrated farther north than
any vessel ever had been before, passing
several degrees beyond the supposed
open sea" of DR.. Kane. proving that nav
igator's theory myth.
After putting the Polaris in winter
quarters, Capt. Hall made a dog-sledge
journey of several weeks toward the north
pole. He reached the latitude 50 degrees